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Old sheds and workshops
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badhuis



Joined: 20 Aug 2008
Posts: 1390
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 2:01 pm    Post subject: Old sheds and workshops Reply with quote

Last weekend I visited someone in the New Forest area to pick up a couple of very good original Jaguar MkVII seats. The man had them spare as he made the choice of renewing the complete interior. And he did a pretty good job. Elsewhere in his workshop he had been slowly restoring (8 years and counting) a XK150 coupe from a very bad condition (rotten wings etc) up to an excellent car. Did all the work himself. In another shed he had a DB7 and a Bentley Arnage. He only had the Bentley for two weeks, the car being as new 20 years old and only 30K miles.

What surprised me most was not his workmanship, which was very good, but the condition of his sheds and workshop. The AM and Bentley sit in a dark corrugated iron shed. His workshop is a wooden structure on a concrete floor, probably over 60 years old. Dark, cold inside with small outside windows, he worked there every day.

All very charming but I probably would have invest the Bentley money into a more proper workshop.
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Rootes75



Joined: 30 Apr 2013
Posts: 3785
Location: The Somerset Levels

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 2:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I love places like that, although I don't think I would like to restore something in there!
To me that's the proper sort of old time shed/workshop, I remember my Grandfather had sheds like this. One was an old corrugated tin nissen hut bought from a local wartime airfield!
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badhuis



Joined: 20 Aug 2008
Posts: 1390
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 2:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Agree that is nice to see, there is always something to be discovered on the many shelves and rubbish everywhere.
Long ago I visited the Aston Martin factory (1987?) which were then also housed in old tin sheds. Amazing, it made an impression on me never to judge craftmanship "on the cover".

But I could not work in such environments, at least not long term. It may be different if you are hiring a workshop or shed, but in this case the owner owned it like this for years and years and clearly does not mind.
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Rick
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Joined: 27 Apr 2005
Posts: 22429
Location: UK

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 3:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My shed/garage/motor house leaves a lot to be desired from a usability/space/lighting point of view too Smile

RJ
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MikeEdwards



Joined: 25 May 2011
Posts: 2463
Location: South Cheshire

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 6:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maybe he won't get planning permission to change the shed he's already got to be something more modern or "nicer". Corrugated iron sheds might be based on old WW2 Nissen huts, for example.
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Longstroke



Joined: 01 Oct 2019
Posts: 24
Location: Wiltshire

PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 9:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hello Everybody,

I've recently joined this forum and this is my first posting.

When we decided to move house ten years ago, and we both created our wish list, I originally wanted a double garage. However, the majority of places we looked at with this feature, the space was a bit limited ie at best double an 8' x 16' standard size council lock up. We eventually found this place which had some under cover car space, but I still wanted a workshop/garage. What I decided to do in the end, as a compromise, was to have a reasonably spacious single size wooden garage that didn't annex too much of the garden, but that would sort of informally replicate one of those Practical Motorist covers from the 1950s. I still wear at times my Dad's 1960s much repaired oily boilys and work away in there on similar aged old machinery until called in for a cuppa or dinner. I imagine in time it (and I) will all look like some of the battered aforementioned buildings. Apparently, the late Rt Hon Alan Clark MP used to keep his XKs etc in old sheds, with invading wildlife etc having more rights than the vehicles.
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alastairq



Joined: 14 Oct 2016
Posts: 1950
Location: East Yorkshire

PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 12:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

All very well espousing hospital-like environments for our precious belongings, and associated workspaces.....but....?
I suspect an awful lot of motoring enthusiasts don't have any sort of access to the exemplary incomes necessary to indulge in double garages, heated workshops, sparkly clean environments, etc?
Indeed....I wonder how many on here don't actually own the hoes they live in, currently?

Nearly 25 years ago [now?? Sad ]....I was undergoing the end of my 2nd marriage [aka, home-brewed divorce........entirely done by myself...so mending old cars isn't the sole preserve of the do-it-oneself individual?].....I had to duly find a place to buy [aka, borrow the money to buy??] thus, my usual estate agents got my instructions...when asked what 'I was looking for'?
Those Instructions were...to find a reasonable size garage, with a bedroom attached!

After looking [and discounting, due to steep stairs, and the fact I 'got' the ancient family Border Collie].....one or two cottages with barns attached....they came up with a decade old bungaloo, one bedroom, and a double garage...but not double as in, width..but double, as in, length.

Snapped it up....[well, Border Collie did..he liked the conservatory]....wide enough garage to get a car trailer inside, comfortably...which came in useful frequently]....a long enough driveya to store[aka hide?] 3 or 4 cars in line....not bad for under 30K!

Now, after yet another ended marriage..[not failed..just, they came to a natural end!!]....I am left with having to rent [age precludes yet another mortgage]....and to rent a place that fits all my requirements means spending a significant proportion of my drastically reduced income.

I have rented before, and had a garage with small workspace...but now, what i have is a workshop building [two portacabins stuck together..of very dubious age]....which has electric heaters.....and a large hillside garden whereby I can 'store' my various automotive projects [see below?].....without having to spend extra income renting other places of storage.

Because of the sloping nature of the surrounding garden/land.....[and despite my landlord being fine if I wanted to build a garage]....I resorted to obtaining a Danish manufacture, so-called 'portable' garage........in other words, a large tent!
This is of lightyears superior quality than the usual Machine Mart efforts.....and although showing signs of wear here & there...is still extant nearly 5 years later.....in which shelters, in n unusually dry environment, my Dellow...with room if I so wish, to fit the FIAT 126 behind as well..... This is on sloping hardcore ground, well anchored..[although where I live has it's own, sheltered, microclimate].... and I even have lights inside....
Next to that, I have erected a US-made [kit] car port. with clear roof panels which filter out ultraviolet. A really worthwhile bit of kit, being better than the usual wood framed efforts......[being ally extrusions]....with tremendous detail attention in design..including built in guttering, etc....plus being entirely flexible as to dimensions....[except length]...
This more or less shelters the big car.....
Then I have a double width tarmac surface [but sloping...there's a need for many wheel chocks]....driveway.....gated as well, If I wish...it's a bit like a farm field gate......were I can work on my various autos with daylight and room to wriggle about on.
So most of my mechnicking [and major welding] is done outdoors....with fabrication, and finer work like engine re-builds, done in the workshop...which can be [expensively] warm in the depths of winter...
LAndlord has just re-roofed the workshop area [and out buildings too] with wriggly tin...as the originals leaked here & there...landlord wants to keep me as a tenant I think?
Large lumps..engines, axles and the like, get transported up & down using an electric winch[on my trailer]....and inventive use of freebie sack barrows..[I have two new ones, both donated FOC]...another useful tool now I'm getting older is the cheapo ebay engine crane....lifts all sorts of things...

So, not seeing half my monthly income is a price I am prepared to pay for something which meets my needs.....[including a spare bedroom for my son, who comes to stay now & then]...Even so-called 'owning' one's home often means there is a disjoint between what we'd like to have, and what we can actually afford or, even, find?

Does mean, though, I am still 'asset-rich, cash poor'' like so many pensioners these days?

Plus, I struggle to keep my vehicles looking pretty! [Looking pretty really isn't my barra?]
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Ford Pop chassis, Ashley 1172 bodyshell, in pieces.
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lowdrag



Joined: 10 Apr 2009
Posts: 1585
Location: Le Mans

PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 1:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The person who carried out the second restoration of my E-type in 30 years did all the work in converted farm outbuildings, including painting the car. Cold, damp, but the workmanship was superb - and not at all expensive!
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